It was a windy and chilly day. We decided to go for an indoor activity to avoid the cold.

The National Museum of China was an apparent choice since it’s within walking distance from Qianmen Dajie. It is located on the eastern side of Tiananmen Square. The entrance to the museum is free. You can imagine the line as everyone was trying to get indoor.

The National Museum of China is huge. It has a total floor space of 200,000 square meters for display. This museum was a merger of the Museum of the Chinese Revolution on the northern wing and the National Museum of Chinese History on the southern wing.

This building was built in 1959 for the celebration of the tenth year anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. It is directly across the Great Hall of the People built at the same time. (more…)

My last full day in Beijing is dedicated to the Temple of Heaven which is a complex of religious buildings at the southeastern part of central Beijing. The complex occupies an area of 2.7 square km; larger than the Forbidden City. It was a place where the emperor (son of heaven) gave thanks to heaven and prayed for good harvest for the following year.

The Temple of Heaven was constructed from 1406 to 1420 during the Ming dynasty. It was inscribed as a UNESCO Heritage site in 1988.

The park is opened to public in 1918. It becomes a popular place for people to gather for singing, exercising, socializing and past times.

A corridor like those found in palaces with a colour scheme of blue to represent heaven.

The most recognizable building in the complex is the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests. It is a circular building on a triple layered white marble terraces. This is where the emperor would offer sacrifice to the heaven on Winter Solstice.

The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests has round roof with three layers of eaves. The circular roof symbolizes the sky and blue represents the color of heaven. The building is built completely in wood without the use of any nails. The original building was burned down by a fire caused by lightning in 1889 and it was re-built several years later. (more…)

After lunch we proceed to visit the Lama Temple or Yonghe Lamasery. If you take the subway, there is a station named after the Yonghe Palace i.e. Yonghegong Station.

The Lama Temple was built in 1694 during the Qing Dynasty, as the residence of Prince Yongzheng. In 1944, the Qing Dynasty formally changed it’s status to a lamasery and it became the national centre of Lama administration. This is the largest and most well preserved lamasery in present day in China.

The entrance fee is RMB25 (about CAD4) per person. A huge bell welcome visitors to the temple. The Lama Temple is built on the north south axis since it’s was a palace in origin.

The above is a layout of the palace; courtesy of travelchinaguide.com.

The transformation of the Yonghe Palace to Lama Temple include:

Yonghe Gate (used to be the main entrance to the palace) to Devaraja Hall (Hall of the Heavenly Kings) which houses the statues of the four Heavenly Kings

Yonghe Gong (used to be the main palace) to Hall of Harmony and Peace which displays three Buddhas; Sakyamuni (middle), Kasyapa-matanga (right) and Maitreya (left) and 18 Arhats (statues of Buddha disciples on both sides of the hall

Yongyoudian (used to be prince Yongzheng’s living room and where his coffin was placed after his death) to Hall of Everlasting Protection houses a statue of Bhaisajya-guru

The rest of the buildings include:

Falundian (Hall of the Wheel of the Law) where Lamas read scriptures and hold Buddhist ceremonies and houses a large status of Tsong Kha-pa, an ancestor of Lamaism. This is used to the the living area for the Emperor’s wives

Wanfuge (Pavillion of Ten Thousand Happinesses) where tens of thoussands of Buddhas are displayed along with an enormous status of Maitreya stood on a white marble base

Like all the palaces, halls were guarded by stone lions, symbols of Imperial family. (more…)

Day 11’s itinerary was to visit the Temple of Confucius at Guo Zijian street in Dongcheng District. The Confucius Temple in Beijing is ranked second in size (22,000 square meters) behind the Temple of Confucius in Qufu in Shandong Province of all the temple of Confucius in China. It is built in 1302 in the Yuan dynasty and expanded during the Ming and Qing dynasties.

The admission fee to the Temple of Confucius is RMB30 (CAD5) per person. This includes the neighbouring Guo Ji Jian (Beijing Imperial College) which was the institute of highest education in China.

A statue of Confucius stood at the entrance of Dacheng Gate (Gate of Great Accomplishment).

There are 198 stone tablets placed on either side of the front courtyard of the Dacheng Hall. The stone tablets contain 51,624 names of Jinshi (the advanced scholars) of the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. (more…)

On the return trip from Xian to Beijing, I wanted to try to take the public transport from the airport to Wangfujing instead of taking a cab which costs RMB100. We took the express train from the airport to city center which costs RMB25 per person. From the city center we took the subway back to Wangfujing which costs RMB2 per person. So, there will be a saving of RMB46 for the two of us. However, we dont think it’s worth the hassle as we had to lug our luggages up and down stairs through the long corridors of the subway station and a long walk back to the hotel from the subway station.

We headed to the APM mall for lunch. We had our favourite “Mala La Xiang Quo”. The above was RMB140 (about CAD24). We went back to the hotel to rest since we woke up very early for out flight.

At dinner time, we went out for dinner with a few of Ben’s colleague. We went to Tai Hing at APM, a HongKong style restaurant.

We had pineapple buns for appetizer. Some of Ben’s colleagues commented that it’s weird to have sweet bun as appetizer.

One of Ben’s colleague wanted to order the BBQ pork as he loves it after he had it earlier. It was served in a hot plate and doused with sweet honey sauce. (more…)